THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



75 



killed one as soon as llioy rolensccl her. 

 I dill not smoke tliem afi,er piit'!n<i: the 

 cai^e.on tlie hive; t.iie olher I smoked and 

 was roecived nil riji'lit, and have tviiitered 

 the best of ann rolojii/ I have. After they 

 swarm can't I divide the parent hive into 

 as many colonies as there are queen cells 

 j^ivinij one to each, divitlinir the bees 

 ecinaily and lillin^i' the hives wiih frames 

 of brood from other colonies? Will their 

 be bees enongh to take care of the coh)- 

 iiies and iiow soon shall I divide them af- 

 ter they ca>t the first swarm? Can't I i)nt 

 some of the bees l)ick from the (Irst swarm 

 so there will be enough for the divided 

 ones? 

 C. Fkank Floyd, WesternviHe, X, Y. 



To do successfully as friend Floyd 

 proposes above, requires the hand of 

 an experienced person. There are 

 many difificulties attending an operation 

 of this kind. Now, if I were intending 

 to carry out the above plan I would re- 

 turn the swarm (after removing the 

 queen) when they come out, and let 

 them remain for six days thereafter. 

 Towards night on the sixth day would 

 get all the hives and necessary fixings 

 ready and proceed to divide up. 



But here a little trouble comes in. 

 AVhen the swarm is returned queenless, 

 they at once commence to construct 

 more queen cells, and this time instead 

 of selecting eggs, larvae will be used to 

 rear the queens from. These cells 

 should be destroyed. In order to know 

 which are the best cells, and the first ones 

 built, I would suggest that before the 

 swarm is returned, the hive be opened 

 and small sticks thrust through the comb 

 near each cell to mark its location. About 

 eight cells in all will usually be found. 



Mow for the reason why one should 

 wait six days before dividing the bees. 

 When the swarm comes off the cells 

 have just been capped and there is great 

 danger of injuring them. At any rate, 

 I cannot handle newly built cells and 

 have success in hatching all of them. 

 ]iut from six to eight days alter the cells 

 have been capped they may be handled 

 about the same as peanuts. It will 

 take a good deal of rough handling to 

 injure the queens in them. Don't expose 

 the cells to the sun. Now I will go back 

 to the work required in dividing. Yes, 



you can make as many colonies as there 

 are cells, and it is a good idea to bor- 

 row brood from other hives, provided 

 there are bees enough to protect it. 



Place the l)rood and cells in the new 

 hives, divide the bees equally among 

 them, and cover up. Now what shall be 

 done with the new colonics ? They can- 

 not all occupy the old stand, and if they 

 do a large majority of the bees will 

 leave the new hives and go directly to 

 the old location and then the whole 

 thing will be a failure. The only thing 

 to do is to remove all but two of the new 

 colonies half a mile (one mile is bet- 

 ter) from the old stand and let them 

 remain three weeks at least. During 

 this time the young queens will become 

 fertile and all may be taken back to the 

 home yard. 



ITALIANIZING. 



Dear Sir: I have 49 colonies of black 

 and hybrid bees. If I buy a few Italian 

 queens can I raise pure queens^ 



All the bees near me are black. 



Can queens be mated in liives without 

 letting the queens out? 



Archie, Mo. W. E. Lkonard. 



I do not see how pure Italian queens 

 can be reared undertheabove conditions. 

 You would first have to get a colony of 

 pure Italian bees in order to get the 

 drones to fertilize your queens. The 

 next step would be to procure a drone- 

 trap to place on each hi\-e of black and 

 hybrid bees. 



No. Queens cannot be fertilized in 

 the hives. They must have a flight. 



THE BAY STATE HIVE. 



Mi{. Alley: 1. Do you remove the thin 

 winter cases from the Bay Slate hive in 

 summer? 



2. Could I keep in the living room in 

 winter a frame of bees in au observation 

 hive? 



3. Is there any way of uniting two weak 

 colonies of bees in winter? 



Furt riain, N. Y. E. W. Dockstader. 



1. Yes, I remove the winter case in 

 summer when the bees are storing hon- 

 ey. 



2. I do not think you can keep a one- 

 comb observation hive through the win- 

 ter. I never could. 



